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Our Dataset

Xeneta Ocean Freight Transit Times Data

Compare carrier-announced, port-to-port transit times, with actual vessel performance, using tracking data at a port-to-port, service, and vessel level, to reveal accurate transit time gaps.

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Xeneta, trusted by the world's biggest buyers & sellers of containerized and air freight

Much of the transit data available today is based on carrier-published or advertised schedules. These show the plan, not what actually happened.

 

Xeneta brings both into view: the announced transit time and the actual transit time based on vessel movements over the past 30 days—putting real service performance on the table and exposing where promises meet reality.

Ocean Freight Data at Scale

 What make Xeneta’s Transit Times Data Unique

2 views

Announced + actual

See carrier-announced transit times alongside actual transit times as well as real-time delays.

400+

Detailed corridors

Port-to-port reliability, not just trade-lane averages.

Vessel-level

DATA

Based on terrestrial and satellite AIS data, tracking 10,000+ vessels and 50,000+ arrivals per month.

XENETA TRANSIT TIMES DATA

What's in the dataset

The transit time is the port-to-port travel time of a container, from origin to destination. Xeneta provides two views: announced and actual.

 

Announced transit times are based on the carrier-published schedule and reflects planned services. Actual transit time is based on actual vessel movements, tracked in real time using AIS tracking data, calculated on a 30-day rolling window to reflect current conditions.

The carrier's published schedule at service launch, showing the planned port-to-port journey in days.
The 30-day rolling average of actual vessel transit times on the port pair, based on AIS arrival and departure data.
Planned services and vessel departures at a port-pair level, validated against AIS-based vessel movements. See every planned service, departure, delays, and blanked sailing across carriers operating that lane.
Ocean_Product_TransitTimes2
Use Case Scenarios

When you'll use this data

 

01

Market monitoring & risk management

Track actual transit times on your lanes to spot when performance starts to drift from what was announced. This helps you understand where delays are building and how they may impact your supply chain.

02

Sourcing & tendering

Use announced transit times to compare services side by side during tenders, then validate carrier claims against actual vessel performance. Combine this with rate data to evaluate options based on both price and reliability.

03

Measure carrier & LSP performance

Compare what a carrier promised to what their vessels actually deliver, alongside your rates and carrier rates. This gives you a clear, objective view of performance and the trade-off between cost and reliability—helping you make better carrier allocation decisions.

Sources & data processing

How the data is collected

Xeneta’s transit times data is based on neutral vessel movements, derived from data (AIS) and carrier-published proforma schedules, validated across multiple sources to deliver an independent view of on-time performance—made possible by the 2025 acquisition of eeSea, now part of Xeneta. 

01
Collect
Neutral AIS data & carrier proforma schedules

Terrestrial and satellite AIS data for vessel arrivals and departures, plus carrier proforma schedules and port schedule feeds.

02
Cleanse
Noise-filtered

Remove AIS anomalies /inaccuracies, reconcile port calls against proforma schedules, and remove voyages that can't be matched to a scheduled sailing.

03
Normalize
Normalized

Map every voyage to its origin-destination port pair and compute per-voyage transit times on a consistent basis.

04
Validate
Quality-gated

Require enough voyages in the 30-day window for the actual transit time to be validated, and cross-check against carrier-published schedules.

05
Deliver
Delivered on the Xeneta platform

Announced and actual transit times, side by side, surfaced daily in the Xeneta platform.

Our data standards

Trusted & Certified

 

Xeneta's data is built on enterprise-grade security, privacy, and independence — trusted by the world's largest shippers and quoted by leading global news outlets.

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ISO 27001:2022 Certified
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Quoted by WSJ, FT, Reuters
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GDPR Compliant

Frequently asked questions

The most common questions we hear from procurement, supply chain, and freight forwarding teams evaluating Xeneta.  

What's the difference between announced and actual transit time?

Announced transit time is the planned port-to-port travel time from the carrier's originally published schedule. Actual transit time is the 30-day rolling average of real vessel transit times on the same port pair, calculated from AIS arrival and departure data. Announced tells you the plan. Actual tells you what's really happening.

Why does actual transit time sometimes look very different from announced?

Vessels run faster or slower depending on weather, port congestion, bunker economics, and how laden ships are. Blank sailings and rerouting also shift actual transit. On some lanes the gap between announced and actual is small and stable; on others — especially during disruption — it can be significant. That gap is the point of showing both.

Where does the data come from?

Xeneta’s transit time data is based on neutral vessel movement data from terrestrial and satellite AIS, combined with carrier-published proforma schedules. Announced transit times reflect the original schedule, while actual transit times are calculated from real vessel arrivals and departures—providing an independent view of performance.

How often do transit times update?

Actual transit time updates continuously on a 30-day rolling window, reflecting recent vessel movements. Announced transit time only changes when the carrier redesigns the entire service — for example, a new port rotation — so it stays stable enough to be used as a baseline.

 

 

See the data in action

Speak with our team to see announced and actual transit times on your corridors, your carriers, and the decisions you're working through right now.
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